Wednesday, 18 March 2015

Van Der Garde critical of Sauber Team Principal after they reach a settlement

(Sauber F1 Team)

The Sauber F1 Team have released a statement to confirm that
in the interests of the Swiss based outfit they will not be getting into a
mud-slinging match with Giedo Van Der Garde after the two parties reached a
mutual agreement to terminate the Dutch drivers contract.

Van Der Garde took to his official Facebook page on
Wednesday to say:

‘We have reached a settlement with Sauber
and my driver contract with the team has been ended by mutual consent. As a
passionate race driver, I feel sad and am very disappointed. I have worked very
hard my entire career, ever since starting with go-karts at the age of eight,
to live my dream and become a successful Formula One driver. I had hoped at
last to be able to show what I am capable of, driving a car for a respected
midfield team in the 2015 season. This dream has been taken away from me and I
know that my future in Formula One is probably over.

I had a valid driver contract for the entire 2015 season and
enforceable rights to it. I pushed very hard until last Saturday in Melbourne
to get the drive that I was entitled to. This legal process started in 2014 and
has taken a great deal of effort. It was never a last minute thing, but it only
became public in the last week when we tried to force the team to accept the
rulings of a succession of legal authorities and courts.

I am a race driver and all I want is to race. However, the team
principal was adamant not to let me drive, notwithstanding my legal rights to
do so and a series of rulings and court orders in my favour and despite my race
driving abilities. I will never understand this. I could have persisted, but
the team principal had taken a decision contrary to my contract that she would
not work with me and this became painfully clear in the paddock in Melbourne.
To push on against this determination might have brought down the team, it
would most certainly have wrecked the opening Grand Prix in Melbourne because
the team´s cars would have been seized by the court, it may have ruined the
careers of two young drivers Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr. Possibly the
team´s directors would even be taken into custody. I decided I did not want to
live with that idea, even though it was only the team’s management that was
responsible for the bizarre situation I found myself in.

I am very grateful to my fans and many friends in Formula One
who have given me a lot of support during the last couple of months. This
period has been very difficult for me especially since I could not talk to
anybody about the pending proceedings. Last week, many drivers on the grid gave
me their support and several of them did so openly in the media as well. The
same goes for several leading figures in the paddock who include team bosses
and reputable former Formula One drivers. I thank them as well.

My future in motorsport has not finished: on the contrary, I see
this as a new beginning. I will sit down with my management in the coming weeks
to discuss my future plans. I would love to take part in the WEC and the Le
Mans 24 Hours in an LMP1 car. Former Formula One drivers do very well in this
series. We also have our eye on other series such as the DTM in 2016 and
beyond.

There has been a lot of speculation in the media over the past
week, so I want to set out clearly that my sponsors paid the sponsorship fee
related to the 2015 season in its entirety to Sauber in the first half of 2014.
This was simply in good faith and to help the team deal with its cash problems
at the time. Effectively, it was my sponsor’s advanced payments that helped the
team survive in 2014.

Sauber’s financial decision-making in this case is bizarre and
makes no sense to me. I am not at liberty to discuss details, but Sauber paid
significant compensation to avoid honouring the contract they had with me. Only
in that respect can I be satisfied that my rights have finally been recognised
and that at least some justice has been done.

I want to thank McGregor for sponsoring me from the time I won
the Formula Renault 3.5 Ltr. Series in 2008. I hope we can continue to build on
this as my motorsport career goes forward in other series.

I want to thank my family, my father Gerrit and my wife Denise
in particular, for their tireless support throughout the years that I have been
chasing my Formula One dream. The last couple of months have been especially
hard for me but they have always stood by me. Of course, I also want to thank
my father-in-law, Marcel Boekhoorn, who has been a great supporter during my
entire career through the motorsport ranks. Without him, I would not have got
this far.

I also thank Jeroen Schothorst and Jan Paul ten Hoopen for
managing my career and business affairs since 2008 and in particular for their
unconditional support during these last four and a half months. I also extend
thanks to my legal advisor Gijs Rooijens and the law firms, Druces, Blackstone
Chambers and King & Wood Mallesons (Australia), that worked very hard and
enthusiastically – sometimes literally day and night and during weekends – to
fight for my rights.

Finally, I would like to direct a few words to the teams,
drivers, future drivers, their managers and the Formula One governing bodies. I
sincerely hope that what has happened to me will start a movement aimed at
setting new standards and bringing about new regulations to help protect the
rights of drivers. I would like to think that the values and business ethics
that apply in any other business should be equally applicable in Formula One. I
am lucky to have had Marcel and Jeroen on my side. Both of them have extensive
backgrounds in business and bring a lot of expertise to the table when it comes
to resolving complicated business affairs. Without them, I would have remained
empty-handed in the wake of this extraordinary affair. There are numerous
examples of talented drivers with good intentions but without the sort of
professional support that I have had, who have been broken by Formula One and
who have seen their careers destroyed. I therefore hope that my unprecedented
case which was heard last week by the Supreme Court of Victoria at Melbourne
will serve as an example to illustrate what should change, and that new
regulations will be implemented to help protect driver rights.’

The Swiss based outfit confirmed that
they were surprised by the above statement and released a statement of their
own on Facebook saying:

‘Dear Sauber F1 Team fans,

Many of you read today’s statement on Giedo van der Garde’s
Facebook page. So have we and we were, indeed, rather surprised. We don’t know
about Giedo’s intentions. He may try to present himself as a winner, while we
had actually hoped to come to rest after our agreement. Giedo decided to take a
different approach – the reasoning behind we cannot understand.

We’d have very good answers to the many statements and
accusations in Giedo’s post. But to expand on this
wouldn’t help our race team nor our fans and partners. It would only encourage
a mud fight via the media and we will not lend ourselves to that. The next race
in Malaysia is where our focus is and that’s where we will build up on last
weekend’s success together with our drivers Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr.
All our efforts are drawn to this objective.

With this in mind we’d like to encourage
you to form your own opinion about what happened, however critical it may be.
From our side we herewith close the matter and look already forward to
celebrating future achievements at the race track together with you.

Yours sincerely,
Sauber F1 Team

The outfit scored their first points
in over a year at last weekend’s Australian Grand Prix where Felipe Nasr finished
the race in fifth place while Marcus Ericsson finished the race in eighth
place.